


Siblings

by unwindmyself



Series: curious shapes shift in the dark [23]
Category: True Blood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Families of Choice, Female Friendship, Fix-It, Gen, Heart-to-Heart, Male-Female Friendship, Vampire Family, agency and choices!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-11
Updated: 2014-01-11
Packaged: 2018-01-08 08:12:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1130333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unwindmyself/pseuds/unwindmyself
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eric brings his new daughter home to meet the rest of the family, then is prompted to have a much-needed chat with his oldest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Siblings

**Author's Note:**

> Part one, "Until We Bleed."

Eric unlocks the door and ushers Willa in, bowing and gesturing with those overdramatic court manners he learned in centuries past, and eager as she is, she practically skips across the threshold, eyes darting around.  “Is this your house?” she asks.  It isn’t nearly as fancy as she sort of figured a vampire’s house would be, not that she really cares one way or another (if she’d been hung up on fancy houses she’d have stayed human) but it surprises her a little.

“Not exactly,” he shrugs.  So the Williams Lake place is still a little early-2000s, they haven’t bothered to redecorate it.  “But we’re here for the time being.”

“Oh my gosh,” she exclaims.  “This is a secret lair!  You actually have a secret lair?  That is _so fucking cool_!”   The second it’s said, she claps her hands over her mouth, looking shocked (of course she swears, but she’s not used to doing it when someone else, especially someone older than her or significantly younger, is listening).

Eric can figure this, and while a part of him is suddenly starting to wonder why he thought bringing a newborn into the mix was a good idea, especially one this eager, he knows that her eagerness has its place and she has a role to play, so he’s mostly managing to stay amused.  “More like it’s _so fucking necessary_ ,” he says dryly.

All at once, the other women appear from their rooms – Jessica still in her pajamas (she’s the only one of them who actually wears anything resembling pajamas on a regular basis), Pam and Tara with fairly obvious sex hair, Nora looking wan to say the least – and what follows can only be described as an outpouring of confusion.

“What the hell is she doing here?” Pam asks.  Just because she’s been part of Eric’s harebrained schemes before doesn’t mean she can always understand them, and she recognizes the girl’s face from the television.  There’s no way this was a good idea, whatever it was.

Well, no time like the present.

“Willa,” Eric says, turning to the young brunette, “I’d like to introduce you to your big sister, Pam.”

Willa grins.  “I’ve never had a sister before!” she exclaims.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Pam mutters, speeding back downstairs to her room and slamming the door so loud they can hear it in the foyer.

Naturally, Tara makes to follow, brow furrowed, but after exchanging glances with Eric, Nora lays a hand on her arm.  “What,” Tara practically spits out, “Someone oughta go talk to her.”

“Yes, they should,” Eric agrees.  “But while you might be able to offer her some _comfort_ –” Said in a fairly suggestive way, which every one of the women rolls their eyes at – “It’s a conversation that she and I need to have.  After she’s had a chance to calm down.”

“Fuck that,” Tara shouts.  “I’m gonna –”

“Eric is right,” Nora murmurs, sliding her hand to hold Tara’s wrist a bit more firmly.  “In this way, vampire families are quite like human ones.   A change in the dynamic that comes from adding a new member, even – especially – after decades and centuries, often has to be handled with care.”

Tara wrenches out of Nora’s grip, but only to fold her arms over her chest sullenly.  The night is young and she doesn’t really want to waste it on a psychology lesson.

“Excuse the dramatics,” Eric tells Willa, who just smiles again and shrugs, tugging self-consciously at the now-ruined lace of her dressing gown.  “This is your aunt Nora –”

“Charmed,” Nora says smoothly, extending a hand and putting on what appear to be _her_ court manners crossed with her politician politesse.

“And your niece Tara –”

“Hey,” Tara says without much enthusiasm.

“And this is… Jessica,” Eric finishes.  There’s no good way to explain that situation briefly.

“Nice to meet you!” Jessica chirps.  Bless her, her smile is actually genuine, and she and Willa immediately begin complimenting each other’s sleepwear.

When Willa cheerfully pulls Tara into the conversation too, Nora uses it as an opportunity to drag Eric aside, immediately muttering, “What the hell, brother.”

“She can help us,” Eric says.  “Her father is the governor, the one who’s spearheading all of the backlash against –”

“I know who her human father is, we all do,” Nora interrupts.  “That still doesn’t explain why you took it upon yourself to become her new father.”

“She can help us,” he repeats.  “She wants to help us.  She knows things that we could never have discovered otherwise.  And if she’s _one of us_ …”

“What, exactly?” she grumbles petulantly.

“Don’t take that tone with me,” he says distractedly.

“Or what?” she retorts.  “Suddenly you’re so autocratic, you’re going to lay me over your knee and spank me for my insolence?”

“No, you’d like that too much,” he snaps.  “Willa can help, and Willa is staying.”

“I should hope so,” she exclaims.

“I’m not a – what’s that?”  Eric frowns, suddenly looking at Nora more closely and brushing his thumb up over her jawline and ear.  “You know you were bleeding?”

She pushes his hand away, making a face.  “It’s not important,” she says.  “I was up all day reading, don’t worry about me.  I’ve done it before.”

He nods, apparently unconvinced.  “I assume, then, that you have the wherewithal to stay here and babysit?” he asks.

“I think I can manage,” she mutters, rolling her eyes.  Honestly, she’s not a baby herself, staying up doesn’t wreck her.

“Good,” he replies.  “I expect there to be shouting, but don’t let it faze you.  And don’t let the babies try to interfere.”

“I know, I know, this is between you and Pamela,” she says.  “Go take care of her.  She wouldn’t admit it, but she was worrying about you.”  She stands on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek, and suddenly her eyes are twinkling.  “And congratulations on being a father again.”

 

* * *

 

“Pam?”

“Please go the fuck away.”

Eric pauses before knocking again, more insistently and this time without speaking.

“I said, leave me the fuck alone.”

Another moment of hesitation.  He can hear the girls laughing over something in the living room and even as he’s thinking he hopes Nora’s not going crazy dealing with them, he’s wishing that was all he had to deal with himself.  Pam has never been even-tempered, though that’s a well-kept secret to most of the world, and trying to be a father to her has accordingly never been easy.

It’s always been worth it, but it’s never been easy.

“Pam, you know I’ll break the door down if I have to,” he cautions.  “Let’s save ourselves the trouble of that clean-up.”

In moments, then, Pam’s up and the door swings open.  She’s taken the time to brush out her hair and style it, but she’s apparently been crying while doing so, because there are red trails all down her face.  “What the fuck do you want,” she mutters.

Eric pushes into the room – still as sweet-Victorian as he remembers it, all white and pink and embellished like a Valentine’s card, dominated by that ridiculous canopy bed she was always so amused by – and sits on the ottoman that’s too short to properly accommodate his frame.  “I realize we should have talked about this beforehand,” he admits.

“You’re damn right we should have,” she retorts.  “Maybe I could’ve talked you out of going through with the incredibly dumbass plan that was turning that racist fuck of a governor of Louisiana’s only daughter into a vampire!  What the _hell_!”

He makes a face.  “Why is everyone saying that?” he mumbles, mostly to himself.  “Look, it wasn’t planned when I set out last night.”

She pulls a face.  “Real responsible.”

“I hadn’t planned to turn you, either,” he reminds, though it’s said gently enough.  “Circumstances just aligned.”

“Don’t tell me she had the nerve to slit her wrists too,” she says, the attitude mostly gone from her voice, softened by his words.

“I don’t think anyone would have as much nerve as you, Pam.”  It’s said with a smile, overlarge considering the subject matter, and a generous amount of affection.

Finally she sits too, perched on the edge of the bed – close but not too close.  “What happened, then?”

“We’re going to need her help,” he explains.  “This business with her human father –”

“The racist fuck, right,” she repeats.

“She has inside information,” he continues.  “That we’re going to need.”

“I guess it would be marginally easier to bring along another baby vamp than to drag along a little human groupie,” she grudgingly muses.

“That was her thinking on it, yes,” he says.  “We made a deal, and it should be mutually beneficial.”

“Did you fuck her?” she asks (she can’t not ask).  “I saw the way she looked at you.”

“That sounds surprisingly jealous,” he teases (he can’t not tease).

“Did you?” she presses.

But he just gives her a Look.  “No,” he says.  “I didn’t.  That’s not the nature of this.”  He turns more serious, and before she can stop him he’s leaned forward and taken her hand.  “She’s not to replace you, you know.  Neither is Nora.”

She raises an eyebrow.  She’s been living in a world where she's not the only important woman in Eric’s life for a while now (fucking Sookie) and it doesn't bother her (or it wouldn’t if the other woman in question wasn’t always dragging them into shit) but this whole business of them being an actual _family_ has taken some getting used to.  She isn’t jealous of Eric’s surprise of a sister (the kind of relationship that Eric and Nora have is one that Eric and Pam haven't had in decades, and she doesn’t have any intention of that changing anytime soon) and she isn't jealous of Eric’s surprise of a sister for  _her_ (pissed that she didn’t have a say in it, if she lets herself admit it, but not jealous), but, well, to borrow from stupid human romantic comedies, it’s complicated.

For the first time, though, Pam has someone else who’s just as important too.  Probably more important, though it’s not (too much of) a competition.  Tara makes a big difference.

Of course, being Pam she doesn’t say any of this.  She doesn’t _do_ emotions, which Eric knows.  “Stop,” she drawls instead.  “You know I hate it when you’re sappy.”

She’s smiling, though, and so instead of saying anything further on the matter, he moves to her dressing table for a washcloth and passes it over so she can tidy herself up.  “We should get back out there,” he says.  “I believe your little sister has some things to share with the group.”

“Don’t push your luck,” she mutters, but she accepts the cloth and pats the tears off of her cheeks, then rises to follow him out the door.

But even playing nice, or nicer, Pam can’t help but start laughing when they find Jessica and Willa, grinning in matching lace-trimmed tank tops from Jessica’s closet, happily weaving Nora’s hair into French braids while Tara fusses with the stereo.

“Having fun?” Pam asks her aunt dryly.

Nora just rolls her eyes.  “Somehow, this isn’t what I signed up for,” she says.


End file.
